Justice?: JUDGE PROFITS from kids going to Juvenile Detention Centers - February 20, 2011
CBS News (02/09) -Corrupt Penn. Judges Admit Jailing Kids For Cash Kickback Scheme.
CORRUPT JUDGES JAILING KIDS FOR CASH...
Corruption doesn't stop with the government, Wall Street and Washington. It's spreading through to the judicial system. The latest (as far as we know) is a story from Pennsylvania where two elected judges received kickbacks for jailing kids in a detention center for cash. Granted, some of the offenses should have resulted in some kind of punishment, but the story of a 15 year-old girl being sent to a wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on her MySpace page. Give me a break!
It sure must be tough to be a kid today, and even tougher to be a parent...
Pennsylvania rocked by 'jailing kids for cash' scandal
By Stephanie Chen
CNN
(CNN) -- At a friend's sleepover more than a year ago, 14-year-old Phillip Swartley pocketed change from unlocked vehicles in the neighborhood to buy chips and soft drinks. The cops caught him.
Hillary Transue was 15 when she appeared before a judge, accused of mocking a principal on MySpace.
Hillary Transue was 15 when she appeared before a judge, accused of mocking a principal on MySpace.
There was no need for an attorney, said Phillip's mother, Amy Swartley, who thought at most, the judge would slap her son with a fine or community service.
But she was shocked to find her eighth-grader handcuffed and shackled in the courtroom and sentenced to a youth detention center. Then, he was shipped to a boarding school for troubled teens for nine months.
"Yes, my son made a mistake, but I didn't think he was going to be taken away from me," said Swartley, a 41-year-old single mother raising two boys in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
CNN does not usually identify minors accused of crimes. But Swartley and others agreed to be named to bring public attention to the issue.
As scandals from Wall Street to Washington roil the public trust, the justice system in Luzerne County, in the heart of Pennsylvania's struggling coal country, has also fallen prey to corruption. The county has been rocked by a kickback scandal involving two elected judges who essentially jailed kids for cash. Many of the children had appeared before judges without a lawyer.
The nonprofit Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia said Phillip is one of at least 5,000 children over the past five years who appeared before former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella.
Ciavarella pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges of fraud and other tax charges, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Former Luzerne County Senior Judge Michael Conahan also pleaded guilty to the same charges. The two secretly received more than $2.6 million, prosecutors said.
The judges have been disbarred and have resigned from their elected positions. They agreed to serve 87 months in prison under their plea deals. Ciavarella and Conahan did not return calls, and their attorneys told CNN that they have no comment.
Ciavarella, 58, along with Conahan, 56, corruptly and fraudulently "created the potential for an increased number of juvenile offenders to be sent to juvenile detention facilities," federal court documents alleged. Children would be placed in private detention centers, under contract with the court, to increase the head count. In exchange, the two judges would receive kickbacks..
More AT http://queenbeeworld.spaces.live.com/...
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